


Chances Are

by Meri



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen, post-DH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-12
Updated: 2010-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:45:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meri/pseuds/Meri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance meeting holds the promise of something more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chances Are

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2007 Snape After Deathly Hallows Fest. Prompt: Snape's New Career   
> Notes: I wish to thank anyone who is willing to beta this: Regan_v, Leni_Jess and Beth H.

"Harry," Burton said, standing beside his desk. "A bunch of us are going out to have a drink and celebrate surviving another week. Come with?"

Harry looked up from the pile of parchments on his desk and sighed. It had been a long week. He'd made his first case. At least, there was some satisfaction in that.

"Sure. I'm ready to quit for the day." Harry stood and reached for his coat. Very few New York wizards wore robes, except on the most formal of occasions. Harry was still getting used to a woolen great coat instead of a cloak.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he and Burton joined the rest of the Aurors at the entrance to the building.

"What about Lily's?" Melinda from the fraud division said. She gave Harry a smile. "Food's good there, too."

Burton nodded. "You should feel right at home, it's like a British pub."

"Sure. Good food is always a plus." Even after so many years, he couldn't hear his mother's name without it striking a chord in him.

The pub was only a few blocks walk. It was dim and warm inside and the smell reminded him of a pub in England he used to frequent. Closing his eyes, Harry breathed in deeply. A wave of homesickness hit him. Shaking off the melancholy, he sat down at the table with his colleagues.

Everyone gave their drink orders, and a couple of people ordered food, Harry among them. The food was good, and the company meant he'd put off the emptiness of his flat for a few more hours.

"How are you enjoying your dinner?" A surprisingly familiar voice asked.

Startled, Harry looked up, and froze. "Snape?"

"Potter?" Snape looked nonplussed. "What are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Burton asked and Harry couldn't guess at the tone of his voice. He hadn't known him for very long.

"We did. A long time ago," Harry said, his heart pounding so hard that his chest hurt. He'd known Snape had survived Nagini's attack, of course. After Snape had recovered -- which had taken a month -- he'd stayed just long enough to collect his order of Merlin, and then had simply left, telling no one where he was going.

At odd moments over the years Harry had thought about him, wondering where he'd gone, but he'd never followed up on it. "Small world, eh, Snape?"

"Far too small." Snape's tone was right out of Harry's worst memories. "What are you doing here?"

Harry shrugged and nodded towards his plate. "Eating. What else would I be doing here?"

"Always a smart mouth," Snape sneered. "You haven't changed at all."

"As it has been more than twenty years since the last time you've seen me, you wouldn't really know, now would you?"

Snape's expression hardened. "Ah yes. But who could forget The Boy Who Lived. And then Lived again."

"Snape, enough," Harry said, a warning in his voice. He did not need this now. Not with his colleagues all watching him. He hadn't been at his job long enough that this wouldn't hurt him.

"Surely your chums all know about the Boy Who Lived. The Boy Who Defeated the dreaded Voldemort. Hero to all of Wizarding Britain." The sarcasm in his voice made him sound like Snape believed the opposite was true.

"Whatever grudge you think you have against me, now is not the time to discuss it," Harry snapped. It had been a very long time since anyone had treated him this way, and he wasn't going to allow it, now.

"Well, well, you still haven't learned any manners, have you?"

Harry met his eyes. "I'm not the one who is interrupting a group of colleagues with a twenty year old grudge."

Snape blinked and his whole manner changed. He bowed slightly. "Perhaps you're right. Enjoy your meal."

He couldn't believe that Snape had just backed down. Harry exhaled slowly, his pulse starting to return to normal. "Does he work here?"

Her eyes were wide with surprise. "He owns the pub," Melinda said, quietly.

Lily's. "Of course he does."

"How do you know him?" Burton asked. And while it sounded casual, it wasn't. They were all looking like they'd never seen him before. He was the outsider. Again.

"Years ago. He was a professor at Hogwarts. I was not his favorite student. What do you know about him?" Harry wasn't going to go into the whole spy thing with them. Too many years had passed. It was all over and done with at this point.

"He came here eighteen or twenty years ago, and opened this bar. Unlike many of the bars in the area, he's never been involved with organized crime -- or at least as far as we've been able to tell. Most of the Auror staff eats here. He serves good food, and doesn't water his drinks. We don't know that much about him."

Harry wasn't going to be the one to tell them anything. Not unless it became an issue. And he'd see that it didn't.

* * *

Later that night, Harry went back to the pub. Even though he knew he should let it go, he couldn't. It was nearly closing when he sat down at the bar.

"What can I get you?" the bartender asked.

"Do you have Guinness on tap?"

The bartender nodded and put a pint in front of him.

Harry took a sip. "I'd like to speak to the owner."

"I'll see if he's available."

A moment later, Snape appeared at his shoulder. "Potter. What do you want?" his tone lacked some of the animosity of before.

"I..." He wasn't sure. "What was the problem before?"

Snape folded his arms over his chest. "I was surprised to find you in my pub. I dislike surprises."

"I can appreciate that. But I'm unwilling to be treated as if I'm still in school." It galled Harry to even have to say it. What was wrong with Snape anyway? Twenty years was a long time to continue to hate someone. Of course, the Snape he remembered carried a grudge like a cloak.

"You're in my pub," Snape said as if that were the answer to everything.

"True enough. But the circumstances are completely different. You haven't seen me in years." That was the rub, of course. In that time, Harry had grown up, raised a family, and now was starting a new life.

Snape exhaled. "Why are you here?"

"I didn't know it was your pub. Burton asked me to come out for drinks tonight. Nothing more than coincidence." Harry shook his head. What were the chances that of all the pubs in New York, he'd find the one that Snape owned?

Snape didn't look convinced. "Why did you come back?"

Harry wasn't completely sure. But it didn't feel right letting the past go without at least...trying. "I haven't seen you in years. I was just --"

"Wondering how I was, perhaps? Since I'm so much in your thoughts." Snape sneered that ugly sneer that had always meant he was angry beyond control. But it made no sense in these circumstances.

Perhaps if he stayed calm, Snape would too. "Well, you are now." Harry smirked up at him. "I never got to speak to you after everything."

Wit a deep sigh, Snape seemed to take a step back from his anger. "And there was a reason for that. I didn't want to talk about it."

"Why not? I mean, why did you run away?" Maybe running away was overstating it, but Harry had always felt he should have stayed and helped out.

"I didn't run away. I left. Of my own free will."

"Right. So, instead of helping with all the devastation that was left after the war, you just up and left. Leaving it for the rest of us." Clearly, he still had issues with it. Which wasn't really fair, but he couldn't help how he felt about it.

"That's right. I'd done my part. I'd done more than I should have been asked to do."

"So had I. So, had everyone who fought that war. Good God, Snape, we were children. We should never have been asked to do what was asked of us. Me, most of all." Harry took a deep breath and forced himself to stop shaking.

"Except that you did it. And got all the rewards that came with it."

"You didn't go unrewarded either."

"That is beside the point," Snape spat out.

"What was the point?" Harry's heart was still pounding. What was it about Snape that caused this kind of reaction? He had starred down a Dark Lord without this much trauma.

"What are you doing here? I don't want you in New York."

That was the stupidest thing Harry'd ever heard. "You can bar me from your pub. But you can't bar me from New York."

"When are you leaving?"

"I'm not."

"What about your little family?"

"My wife divorced me last year. My children will spend half of their summer break here. Not that that's any of your business." The final break with Ginny had been a long time coming. As much as he'd miss seeing Hermione and Ron on a weekly basis, his kids were at school and he wanted more from life than what he'd found so far.

"Ah, but my business is your business."

"I'm just curious."

"Go away, Potter." Snape turned around, and left Harry sitting there. But he didn't go that far. He slumped into a booth near the back of the pub. Harry got up and took his drink over to where Snape was sitting.

"I thought I told you to leave." But the word lacked bite. It almost seemed that Snape didn't want him to leave.

"I don't listen as well as I used to." Harry sat down in the booth across from Snape.

"You never listened at all."

Harry tipped his glass to Snape. "Exactly."

"I'm sure you're a fine Auror." Snape's tone dripped with scorn.

But Harry could only laugh. "I am, actually. I got this position based on my work in England. The Yanks don't remember Voldemort. Not the way we do at home."

"I've spent the last twenty years trying to forget everything." Snape didn't look at him.

"That's why you named the place Lily's?"

"It's the only part of her I can have." Snape had become very focused on tearing the label off his beer. "Get out."

Under other circumstances, that might have sent Harry packing, but it sounded so tired. "You don't really mean that, do you?"

"Potter, don't push me."

"In case it's escaped your notice, I'm the one in authority now."

Snape laughed at that. "Once I would have said you'd never abuse it, but I don't know you any more."

"You're right. You don't. So, why not just let it go?"

"I should. I don't have the energy to deal with you." Snape took a sip from the bottle and then put it down on the table.

Harry looked at him. Really looked. When he'd first seen Snape, Harry had thought he'd looked about the same -- wizards didn't age the same as Muggles. But now he could see that Snape actually looked older. His hair was longer, brushing his shoulders, and touched with gray at the temples. It was also not nearly as greasy as Harry remembered it being. Snape still wore robes, just like he'd done at school, but even in the dim light of the pub, Harry could see they were dark green rather than black.

"Why did you leave? England, I mean?" Harry asked, not quite willing to let the conversation go.

Snape looked at him. "Why do you care?"

"I don't know," Harry said honestly. "But it seems important to me to know." It was one of those impulses he didn't question, like the one that had brought him back here tonight.

With a flick of his hand, Snape signaled the bartender to come over. He brought Snape a glass of whisky and another beer. "Do you want something more?" Snape asked.

Harry shook his head. He never drank to excess any more.

Snape downed the whiskey in one go. "I left because there was nothing there for me. I'd done what I'd promised. I wanted more of a life than I had a chance of having there."

"You were a war hero --"

"Because you said I was. Without you, they would have prosecuted me for Dumbledore's murder." Instead of the bitterness he expected, Snape just sounded resigned.

"But --"

"You know I'm right. Had you not told everyone what I'd done, I would have gone to Azkaban."

"But I did. And you were --"

"No. It doesn't matter now. I wanted a fresh start away from all the memories." Snape waved a hand at him. "Don't say it again. Despite that, I'd got what I wanted. I opened this bar, and lived my life." There was a contentment to him that came through.

Enough to surprise Harry. He never would have believed the bitter angry man Snape had been could have changed this much. Or at all. "Are you married?" Harry asked.

Something flashed in Snape's eyes, something wholly sad and hurt. "No. Not anymore."

That look hit Harry in the gut. He knew it only too well. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Snape said, quietly.

"Divorced?"

"No. I'd rather have had that, I think. He died."

"He?" Harry asked carefully. Because he never would have considered _that_ about Snape. Not that he'd ever thought about Snape's sexuality.

"Things are not as strict in wizarding New York as they were in England."

"I thought --" He stopped. "My mum?"

Snape's jaw tightened. "You have my memories, beyond that I will not speak of her to you."

"All right. How long were you together?"

"Eighteen years. How long were you married to Miss Weasley?"

"Twenty. And we had three kids."

"I knew that you'd had children."

His first thought was to ask how. But it wasn't that far between New York and London, and anything he ever did made headlines back home. "Do you take the Prophet?"

"Not regularly. But it's available here, just like the US wizarding papers are available in London. I saw the announcements. Of at least two of them."

"I named one of them --"

"I know. At the time, I was touched."

Wow. He hadn't expected that. Where had the sneering gone? "I wanted to honor your memory."

"You knew I wasn't dead. Why bother?"

"You were gone. It just seemed right."

"I'm sure Miss Weasley thought so."

Ah, there was the sneering. "She said I could name the kids, so I did. And she hasn't been Miss anything for a while."

"Has she remarried?"

"She's planning to." And that was a subject Harry did _not_ want to discuss. Not at all. Ever.

"That the reason?"

"Partly. Partly me."

"What could the great Harry Potter have done?" Snape's eyes narrowed. "Were you unfaithful?"

"Only if you consider my job my mistress. But that was enough." He'd built a fine career and sacrificed his marriage to do it. Or at least, that was how most people read it. As with most things, he'd found the truth was never as black and white as he'd once believed.

Snape shook his head. "You never could concentrate on what was in front of you."

"Actually, I concentrated too well. It was the other things that got left by the wayside." And Harry wasn't ready to tell him the rest of the reasons. He was still working through them.

After his marriage ended, he'd been faced with the certainty that he'd never really thought about what he'd wanted. He'd reached for normal with both hands, and in the end, found it sadly lacking.

Before Snape could reply, a waiter stopped at their table. "We're ready to close up, boss."

"Lock the front, and I'll lock up the back when I leave."

"Thanks," the kid said, and left them alone. The pub was dark but for the light over their table.

"Do you like this?" Harry waved a finger around in a circle.

"It's my life, so yes. I do." Silence for a moment.

It was time for Harry to go, and he was surprised that he didn't want to yet. "Can I come back?"

"Why?"

"Aside from everything else, I haven't found that many good places to eat in New York yet."

"Potter, this city is filled with excellent restaurants. How long have you been here?"

"About four weeks. Would you care to show me a few of the better restaurants?" Where in the hell had that come from? But once the words were out of his mouth, he knew they were the right thing to say.

Snape smiled and pointed a finger at him. "I will choose the place and you will pay for dinner."

For an ugly git, it was surprising how good Snape looked when he smiled. "I can do that."

"Fine. Saturday night. Eight o'clock. Don't be late."

"Better make it 8:05, then."

Snape laughed.

And Harry did, too. "It's a date."

A look of surprise crossed Snape's face. "I expect that it is."

\--finis


End file.
